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Katherine vs. Catherine

In his post below, co-blogger Jim Lindgren speculates that the Katherine Fenton who asked a question at the Presidential debate might be the same Catherine Fenton who apparently was involved with CodePink and has written for sites like Truth-Out and Counterpunch — and is thus presumably was not really an undecided voter. I’m not sure, but I tend to doubt they are the same person. First, the transcripts are spelling the name differently: Katherine, as opposed to Catherine.

Second, the Katherine Fenton at the debate is really young. It would surprise me if someone that young were describing herself a few years ago as “a writer and the owner of a small communications company in NYC,” which is how the Catherine Fenton involved with CodePink described herself five years ago in her bio at Op-Ed News. The debate video is here at 1:06 mark, and here is a screen shot of the Katherine Fenton who asked the question:

I certainly can’t rule out that they are the same person, but it seems relatively unlikely to me.

UPDATE: The Catherine Fenton who wrote for Counterpunch and Truth-Out said in her bio a few years ago that she had earlier published a few items in Newsday. There’s very little at the Newsday site by someone with the name Catherine Fenton, at least that is on the web. But here’s one article: an essay from a decade ago in which Catherine Fenton reminisces about her late 20s. If Fenton was reminiscing in 2002 about her late 20s, I don’t think that can be the same person that asked the question at the debate. But it’s hard to know: The name is common enough that you can’t know if one Catherine Fenton is the same as another.